REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Disaster Information Management System
East-West Gateway Council of Governments One Memorial Drive, Suite 1600
St. Louis, MO 63102
Request for Proposals for
Disaster Information Management System
The East-West Gateway Council of Governments (referred to hereafter as the Council) is seeking proposals from appropriate vendors for a centralized browser-based, no client software, incident management communications tool that supports emergency management agencies, first
responders, hospitals and their community partners in information sharing while supporting the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) compliance.
Proposals are due onOctober 3, 2008 no later than 5:00p.m. local time to the following address:
Mr. Les Sterman Executive Director
East-West Gateway Council of Governments One Memorial Drive, Suite 1600
St. Louis, MO 63102
Late proposals will be returned unopened. Seven (7) hard copies and one (1) electronic copy (CD) of the proposal are required. Faxed proposals will not be accepted.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Page
I. Introduction ... 1
II. Scope of Work... 1
III. Content of the Proposal ... 7
IV. Evaluation Criteria ... 8
V. Selection Procedures ... 8
VI. Protest Procedures ... 9
VII. Proposal Information ... 9
Attachment A Affirmative Action Checklist Attachment B Certification Regarding Lobbying
1. Introduction
The St. Louis Area Regional Response System (STARRS1) is seeking assistance with
implementation of a disaster information management system that will assist first responders and hospitals in incident management while supporting the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) compliance while
facilitating data tracking and real-time communication. In 2003 the federal government began the Urban Areas Security Initiative program to help urban areas deemed at risk to enhance their security in the face of terrorism and natural disasters. The designated Urban Area in the St. Louis region consists of the City of St. Louis and Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri and Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties in Illinois. With the exception of the City of St. Louis, each of these counties has within its borders different forms of local
government which range from local municipalities with their own services (police, fire, public works, etc.) to single purpose political subdivisions that include fire protection, ambulance, school and sewer districts. For purposes of this Request for Proposal and the project, the terms “Urban Area” and the “Region” are used interchangeably and are both defined as the eight counties described above, including local governments and municipalities that exist within the counties.
II. Scope of Work
Bidders are encouraged to expand, improve and refine the Scope of Work, but not to change its intent. Bidders must address all aspects of the Scope of Work in their proposal. The contractor will be responsible for the following components:
1. The following are minimum required features:
• Browser-based solution: Must be browser-based with no client software other than the Internet Explorer browser and downloadable Java applets.
• Redundant Web based Solution: Must provide fully redundant web-hosted solution. There should be no client software installation required on the part of the end user. Fault tolerant and redundancy must allow product to function even in low bandwidth environments.
• HICS and NIMS compatibility: Must support and be in compliance with NIMS and HICS, including providing compliant documents and forms, which can be linked to an incident or event, distributed and printed. Users must be able to configure the system to use NIMS and HICS terminology and organize their emergency operation centers around the NIMS and HICS functions and roles. Organization charts,
1
STARRS is a not for profit organization formed to coordinate responses to critical incidents in the St. Louis metropolitan region. The East-West Gateway Council of Governments (Council or East-West Gateway) is the fiscal agent for STARRS and recipient of grant funding for this project. All contracts will be with East-West Gateway. However, STARRS will be actively involved in the selection of the contractor(s) and ongoing management of the project.
staffing charts and position checklists must be able to be set up and configured to support NIMS and HICS roles and their implementation on an ongoing or per-activation basis. Workflow associated with situation reports, resource ordering and fulfilment, action planning and public information reports must be able to be configured to support the different functional roles defined by NIMS and HICS. • Communication and Collaboration: Must allow users to post information to and
retrieve information from a commonly accessible virtual information space. Must provide access to the specific view of the overall status that users need and are authorized to see.
• Easy to Use: Rapid deployment capabilities, requiring little to no IT involvement Must be easy to use for newly added users to assume role or assigned task within 15 minutes during an unplanned event.
• Data Sharing: Must provide the ability to share information, incidents, resource requests and asset data with other agencies (i.e., fire, police, public health, hospitals and hospital systems) without custom integration. Sharing must be an assigned secure permission granted application. Must support:
• one to many and many to one (agency to multi-agency) sharing • notification upon receipt
• automatic updates of all shared documents on all linked systems whenever they are modified by the ‘owner’ organization
• Notification and Alerting: Must have notification and alert capabilities which is directly tied to the NIMS and HICS command structure. These capabilities must include notification via email, cell phones, land line telephones and alphanumeric pagers. Members assigned to Incident Command Structures (ICS) roles within an agencies facility must be able to receive notification. Besides NIMS and HICS positions the system must be able to notify other people as needed without limit. The accepted system will have no limit to the number of groups or the number of contacts notified and/or alerted.
• Easily scalable: Must allow hundreds of users to be quickly added to handle major crises. Must allow a new user to access the system via a browser with only an assigned User ID and password.
• XML Interoperability Support: Must provide full XML API, allowing developers and integrators to interface and integrate the software with a wide variety of
emergency and incident management tools, systems and other applications to include the St. Louis Virtual Emergency Operations Center and its suite of software products. • Full Audit Trail: Must be able to provide an audit trail of users who have accessed
• Security: Must have multiple layers of security and access control. Access must be controlled with a user name, password, access control groups and roles. Must support SSL. Users must be able to limit access to sensitive data by individual or group. • Distributed Training and Exercises: Must provide a separate set of all functions,
clearly marked as TRAINING, which can be used to conduct training and exercises. Training modules should also allow for each user agency to design their own drills and quizzes.
• Attachments: Must allow users to attach maps, photos, video clips, reports, spreadsheets other files to any document.
• Reports Interface: Must provide a documentation interface for generating critical
reports for potential Federal Emergency Management or other agency reimbursement.
2. The following are minimum required functions:
• Hazard Vulnerability Analysis: Must have integrated Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA) capability linking risks and vulnerabilities with mitigation activities. HVA risk assessment must be able to be viewed with other agencies as required when secure permission is granted. HVA must be in a standardized format and be able to provide an aggregate regional report for regional planning and exercise use.
• Event/Incident Management: Must provide a complete event/incident
management capability. The Event report must allow user to link multiple incidents. The incident report form must capture critical information such as location, name, status, and time of the incident. The incident report must also document time/date/author/agency. Acceptable system must allow for multiple personnel within an organization to communicate and allow for multiple agencies to communicate with each other as well as to outside organizations. The ability to track communication threads must be a part of the system functionality.
• Asset and Resource Tracking: Must provide the ability to inventory, track, request, assign, deploy, and stage assets and resources. Assets must be able to be requested via resource requests, which shall incorporate workflow, approvals, status and resource cost tracking. Users must be able to split resource requests into multiple related requests if a single agency can’t fulfil the full request.
• Bed Tracking: Must track the status of Beds within a facility. Must provide a status overview of all facilities or systems, and the ability to quickly get updated information when needed. The HAvBED2 standard should be an option plus the ability to integrate into a possible state or region existing bed tracking system.
2
The National Hospital Available Beds for Emergencies and Disasters (HAvBED) System provides the feasibility of a national real-time hospital-bed tracking system to address a surge of patients during a mass casualty event. This demonstration model is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Additional
• Exercise / Drill Tool: Must provide a drill and exercise tool that allows for the design and initiation of Drills and exercises. This tool must have the ability to add controllers inject into the exercise play at designated times. There should be the ability to document and produce after action report of the exercise. All aspects of drill design should be incorporated in the tool. I.e. Victim card and triage tags, drill injects, communication, HICS deployment, and after action report,
• Critical Inventory Tracking: Must provide detailed tracking of critical assets within a facility. Supplies, equipment and infrastructure levels should make up the critical asset list. Must provide a status overview of all facilities or systems, and the ability to quickly get updated information when needed.
• HICS: Must be HICS compliant and have the ability to update requirements of HICS. Must allow creation and modification of HICS organization charts. Must allow creation and modification of org charts in real time during a disaster to support temporary or changing organizations. Must allow Job Action Forms and checklists to be populated for each position. Must display position checklists when a user first logs in and make them accessible at any time thereafter.
• NIMS: Must allow facilities to track their NIMS compliance status. Updates to NIMS Elements must be made available to all customers. Component must allow for tracking of specific tasks required to achieve compliance for each individual element. • Directories: Must provide contact management capability. Contact information
must be able to be maintained for both system users and non-users. Access to contact records must be able to be limited to protect the confidentiality of the contacts. Must track name, organization, position, home agency, contact information.
• Reference Section: Must allow users to post, update and disseminate plans,
procedures, checklists and other related information. Must allow users to create links to other emergency management websites. Users must be able to open these reference materials in a separate window and have them always available for reference as they perform their duties.
• License and Usage: Each agency or organization must be able to own and operate their own incident management solution; however, users must be allowed to share information among deployed solutions within the region without additional licenses or fees.. Specifically, the solution must be able to share ICS 200 series forms and other information in an electronic format and must allow like systems to be able to share, edit and incorporate forms into their host system.
3. The disaster information management system must be initially implemented in at a minimum of six hospitals, four emergency operation centers, and three field teams the in the region.
4. The vendor shall provide all training materials and handouts which will include, at a minimum, the accepting hospital, EOC and Field participant and EWG/STARRS:
- Operational Manual - Training Handouts
- Implementation Training Plan
- Maintenance/Sustainable Training Plan - Two exercises to test the system regionally - Provide pre and post exercise meetings - Participant training and exercise evaluation - Participant After Action Report
III. Content of The Proposal
Proposals in response to this request should be directed to Les Sterman, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, One Memorial Drive, Suite 1600, St. Louis, MO 63102, no later than 5:00 p.m. local time October 3, 2008. Proposals received after this time will be returned unopened. Seven (7) hard copies and one (1) electronic copy (CD) of the proposal should be enclosed, along with a letter from a firm principal committing the proposal for a minimum of 90 days. The following items must be addressed in all proposals:
1. Scope of Work. The system performance requirements have been developed by the Council staff. Proposals should indicate if the respondent is proposing to meet all or parts of these requirements. Respondents should include further detail regarding specific methodologies, approaches and types, amounts and specifications of equipment being proposed.
2. Contract Price. Proposals should indicate the cost of services to be provided. Also required is a schedule by task of anticipated staffing level.
3. Qualifications. Proposals should indicate general qualifications of the respondent(s) in disciplines appropriate to the project, as well as specific prior experience and qualifications applicable to this project. Proposals should also provide documentation of real-life or actual situations where the product enhanced communications and collaboration during activations involving multiple user agencies.
4. Conflict of Interest Disclosure. Respondents should indicate whether they have clients who might benefit financially, directly or indirectly, from the project.
5. Affirmative Action Checklist. All respondents must complete and enclose with their proposal the affirmative action checklist (Attachment A).
6. Certification Regarding Debarment and Suspension. All respondents must complete and enclose with their proposal the Certification Regarding Debarment and Suspension (Attachment C).
IV. Evaluation Criteria
The proposal submitted by each vendor or vendor team will be evaluated according to the following factors, in order of priority:
1. Specialized experience and technical competence of the contractor(s) and assigned staff relative to the task requirements outlined in Section II of this RFP. Experience should include:
a) An understanding of the principles of emergency preparedness NIMS and HICS; b) significant experience working with emergency management and first responder
agencies and health care institutions on incident management software; and, c) familiarity with UASI grant guidance.
2. Understanding of the nature of the project to include:
a) Understanding of the proposed scope of work b) Respondent's proposed methodology and approach c) General organization and clarity of the proposal
d) Project schedule and timeliness of products delivery
3. References reflecting the previous work experience of the project team and satisfactory accomplishment of contract responsibility.
a) Quality of final products b) Ability to meet work schedules c) Responsiveness to client input
4. Project cost, schedule of person-hour commitment
a) Total project cost
b) Project schedule and timeliness of products c) Total staff-level commitment
d) Total hours committed for the project manager
V. Selection Procedures
A contractor will be selected by the Council and STARRS after analysis of all information provided in the proposals. Respondents should be available for interviews prior to the selection of a contractor although Council may choose not to conduct interviews. The Council reserves the right to negotiate a contract, including the scope of work and contract price, with any respondent or other qualified party.
This request does not commit the Council or STARRS to award a contract, to pay any costs incurred in preparation of a response to this invitation, or to procure or contract for services or
supplies. The Council reserves the right to accept or reject any or all responses received as a result of this request, or to cancel this request in part or in its entirety if is in the best interest of the Council to do so. Respondents shall not offer any gratuities, favors or anything of monetary value to any officer, employee, agent, or director of the Council or STARRS for the purpose of influencing favorable disposition toward either their proposal or any other proposal submitted as a result of the Request for Proposal.
The Council reserves the right to suggest to any or all respondents to this RFP that such
respondents form into teams of consulting firms or organizations deemed to be advantageous to the Council in performing the scope of work. The Council will suggest the formation of such teams when such relationships appear to offer combinations of expertise or abilities not otherwise available. Respondents have the right to refuse to enter into any suggested relationship.
All proposals submitted hereunder become the exclusive property of the Council.
VII. Protest Procedures
In the course of this solicitation for proposals and the selection process, a proposer (bidder of offer or whose direct economic interest would be affected by the award of the contract) may file a protest when in the proposer's opinion, actions were taken by the staff and/or the selection committee which could unfairly affect the outcome of the selection procedure. All protests should be in writing and directed to Les Sterman, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, One Memorial Drive, St. Louis, MO 63102. Protests should be made immediately upon occurrence of the incident in question but no later than three (3) days after the proposer received notification of the outcome of the selection procedure. The protest should clearly state the grounds for such protest.
Upon receipt of the protest, the executive director will review the actual procedures followed during the selection process and the documentation available. If it is determined that the action(s) unfairly changed the outcome of the selection process, negotiations with the selected proposer will cease until the matter is resolved.
VIII. Proposal Information
Direct inquiries to [email protected]. In order to ensure that all potential respondents receive the same information relative to this solicitation, the Council will post its response for any supplemental information requested on the Council’s web site
www.ewgateway.org. Please visit the web site periodically to check for any additional information. If you wish to have a printed copy of the information mailed, you must mail or email a written request to the staff contact listed above.
Proposals are due at East-West Gateway Council of Governments’ office no later than 5:00 p.m. local time on October 3, 2008. After review and evaluation of the proposals, East-West
Gateway Council of Governments may choose to identify selected respondents for oral interviews.
Council intends to award a single contract for this proposed work. The Scope of Work will need to be completed, reported and invoiced to the Council by May 31, 2009. This funding is
provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant program of fiscal year 2006 through a contract with the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
This solicitation is subject to the regulations imposed by section 1352, title 31, U.S. Code regarding lobbying restrictions. The selected Consultants will be required to submit a "Certification Regarding Lobbying" prior to entering into a contract (see Attachment C).
Attachment A
Affirmative Action Checklist
Federal regulations require that any firm with 50 or more employees soliciting a federally funded contract must have an affirmative action program. If applicable, please provide a brief response to the following items that would typically be covered in any such program. You may provide a copy of your program and reference the appropriate pages. Only one copy is required.
1. Date plan was adopted
2. Name of affirmative action officer
3. Statement of commitment to affirmative action by the chief executive officer
4. Designation of an affirmative action officer, of assignment of specific responsibilities and to whom the officer reports
5. Outreach recruitment
6. Job analysis and restructuring to meet affirmative action goals
7. Validation and revision of examinations, educational requirements, and any other screening requirements
8. Upgrading and training programs
9. Internal complain procedure
10. Initiating and insuring supervisory compliance with the affirmative action program
11. Survey and analysis of entire staff by department and job classification and progress report system
Attachment B
Certification Regarding Lobbying
The undersigned certifies, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, that:
1) No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of the
undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal loan, the entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal, amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement.
2) If any funds other than Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with this Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement, the undersigned shall complete and submit Standard Form-LLL, "Disclosure Form to Report Lobbying," in accordance with its instructions.
3) The undersigned shall require that the language of this certification be included in the award documents for all sub awards at all tiers (including subcontracts, sub grants, and contracts under grants, loans and cooperative agreements) and that all sub recipients shall certify and disclose accordingly.
This certification is a material representation of fact upon which reliance was placed when this transaction was made or entered into. Submission of this certification is a prerequisite for making or entering into this transaction imposed by section 1352, title 31, U.S. Code. Any person who fails to file the required certification shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such failure.
_________________________________________________ (Name of Entity)
_________________________________________________ (Name and Title of Authorized Official)
________________________________ _____________ (Signature of Above Official) (Date)
Attachment C
Certification Regarding Debarment and Suspension
The undersigned certifies to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, that the proposer and its principals:
(a) Are not presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded by any Federal department or agency;
(b) Have not within a three-year period preceding this proposal been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against them for commission of fraud or a criminal offense in
connection with obtaining, attempting to obtain, or performing a public (Federal, State or local) transaction or contract under a public transaction; violation of Federal or State antitrust statutes or commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, or receiving stolen property;
© Are not presently indicted for or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a governmental entity (Federal, State or local) with commission of any of the offenses enumerated
in paragraph (1)(b) of this certification; and
(d) Have not within a three-year period preceding this application/proposal had one or more public transactions (Federal, State or local) terminated for cause or default.
If the undersigned is unable to certify to any of the statements in this certification, an explanation shall be attached to this proposal.
___________________________________________________ (Name of Entity)
___________________________________________________ (Name and Title of Authorized Official)
________________________________ _____________ (Signature of Above Official) (Date)
Attachment D COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS FOR CONTRACTS
This form will be submitted with proposals in response to "Requests for Proposals," for the procurement of planning, engineering and related services. If your cost accounting system does not permit analysis of costs as required, contact the purchasing office for further instructions.
RFP NUMBER
NAME OF OFFERER TITLE OF PROJECT
DETAIL DESCRIPTION ESTIMATED
HOURS RATE/HOUR
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST
(Dollars)
1. LABOR RATE(Specify)
TOTAL LABOR RATE 2. OTHER DIRECT COSTS(Specify, printing, long distance, postage, etc. - for additional space see Exhibit B on reverse)
3. SPECIAL EQUIPMENT (If direct charge - specify)
4. TRAVEL (If direct charge)
a. TRANSPORTATION
b. PER DIEM OR SUBSISTENCE
TOTAL TRAVEL 5. CONSULTANTS ( exclude subcontracts-Identify - purpose - rate)
TOTAL CONSULTANTS 6. SUBCONTRACTS (Specify in Exhibit A on reverse)
7. TOTAL LABOR RATE and DIRECT COST
8 TOTAL ESTIMATED COST
9. FIXED FEE OF PROFIT (State basis for amount in proposal)
10. Total Firm Fixed Price
OVERHEAD RATE AND GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE RATE INFORMATION
A. GOVERNMENT AUDIT PERFORMED DATE OF AUDIT ACCOUNTING PERIOD COVERED
B. NAME AND ADDRESS OF GOVERNMENT AGENCY MAKING AUDIT C. DO YOUR CONTRACTS PROVIDE NEGOTIATED OVER-
HEAD RATES G NO G YES (If yes, name Agency negotiating rates)
D. (If no Government Rates have been established furnish the following information)
DEPARTMENT OR COST CENTER RATE BASE TOTAL INDIRECT EXPENSE POOL BASE FOR TOTAL
EXHIBIT A - SUBCONTRACT INFORMATION (If more space is needed, use blank sheets, identifying item number)
SUBCONTRACT NAME AND ADDRESS OF SUBCONTRACTOR(S) SUBCONTRACTED WORK
TYPE AMOUNT
EXHIBIT B - OTHER DIRECT COSTS (Specify, if more space needed, use blank sheets, identifying item number)
CERTIFICATE
The labor rates and overhead costs are current and other estimated costs have been determined by generally accepted accounting principles. Bidder represents: (a) that he G has, G has not, employed or retained any company or person (other than a full-time bona fide employee working solely for the bidder) to solicit or secure his contract, and (b) that he G has, G has not, paid or agreed to pay any company or person (other than a full-time bona fide employee working solely for the bidder) any fee, commission, percentage or brokerage fee, contingent upon or resulting from the award of this contract, and agrees to furnish information relating to (a) and (b) above, as requested by the Contracting Officer.
NUMBER OF CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES
G 500 AND UNDER G OVER 500
G OVER 750 G OVER 1,000
STATE INCORPORATED IN
